Merry Makers

String-activated, this toy is an orchestra of mice that moves to the piece's music. The mouse playing the piano moves forwards and backwards, the one of the left plays the drum and the one of the right dances. Sat on the top of the piano is a fourth mouse that conducts the orchestra.

Although the mice are freely inspired by the popular Walt Disney character, the theme of the toy involves orchestras or big bands, which were very popular in the United States at that time, such as Cab Calloway's band. The mice are therefore dressed like the musicians of these orchestras, wearing a dinner jacket and white shirt, a bow tie and a red waistcoat. The piano is decorated with pictures of mice and the backrests of the two chairs with cats' heads. The top of the drum is also decorated with a cat's head, which the mouse hits when the mechanism is triggered.

The Merry Makers is considered one of the best toys to be made by Louis Marx & Co. and was the firm's most popular. It was sold for 91 cents, in a box that included the assembly instructions. Four different versions were sold.

Founded in 1919, the Louis Marx company became the largest toy manufacturer in the world and, in 1955, Time magazine called Marx the Toy King. The company produced toys with the most popular characters of the first half of the 20th century, such as Popeye. Marx sold the company in 1972.